IND-A vs SA-A | Twitter in splits as Siraj seeks Senokwane's help to dismiss him after umpire doesn't comply

Today at 5:51 PM

Professional umpires hate little more than bowlers sprinting away in celebrappeal, completely defying their authority in doing so. Mohammed Siraj is one of the most notorious enjoyers of said tactic but it bode no results for him on Day 3 of the India A and South Africa A encounter.

Mohammed Siraj was at his energetic best in the A game between India and South Africa in Bengaluru on Saturday

A second century in the match for Dhruv Jurel, a resoulte 85 from Harsh Dubey, and a blistering 65 from Rishabh Pant saw India A declare on 382/7 on the penultimate day of their second four-match encounter against South Africa A. With a 35-run first innings lead also in the pocket for the hosts, the Proteas representatives were set a target of 417 as their openers walked out to bat with just 11 overs remaining in the day. Mohammed Siraj took the new ball while Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna split duties at the other end and with shiny SG doing all sorts on the green deck, the Indian quick had his tail-up hunting for a wicket. While the scalp never officially came, Siraj would like to believe he earned at least two of them -- a conclusion he tried to ratify with the prospective victim himself.

On the third ball of the ninth over, Siraj steamed in from around the stumps and pitched the ball on length around fourth stump to Lesego Senokwane, who got in position for a backfoot defence. However, the red cherry seamed away viciously after hitting the deck, much like the Akash Deep delivery that had got the better of the right-hander in the first innings. The ball whizzed past the bat and into Rishabh Pant's gloves, who threw up the ball as if to celebrate a wicket. It was all the cue Siraj needed as he continued to sprint in his follow through towards the cordon with his arms outstretched, and only turned back when he went past Senokwane who remained unmoved at the crease. Siraj made a couple of loud pleads to the umpire but with nothing doing, the pacer simply stood distraught hands on knees. The 31-year-old played one final card when he seemed to ask Senokwane himself whether he had nicked him, leaving the opener perplexed. Senokwane simply shrugged his shoulders, bringing a smile to Siraj's face, before the hostilities continued.

Siraj once again squared up his counterpart on the final ball of the day and embarked on a celebrappeal, only to be denied in similar fashion much to Twitterati's amusement.

Siraj was convinced

— Robinson (@Robinson966715)

Sad

The ball rolls onto Mohammed Siraj stumps off Shoaib Bashir.

If Shubman Gill had won the Lord’s Test we could’ve easily won the series and winning a Test series away in england is rare.

That could’ve been the perfect start to Gill captaincy journey.
— GillTheWill (@GillTheWill77)

Unpopular

Unpopular opinion but Mohammed Shami is far far better than any current Indian bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh.

Are you agree with me?👀
— CricSachin (@Sachin_Gandhi7)

Wow

Mohammed Siraj has 131 Test wickets.

50 vs England

39 vs Australia

15 vs West Indies

12 vs South Africa

10 vs Bangladesh

5 vs New Zealand
— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket)

Why?

Why siraj?
— Cricket Picture that Goes Hard (@HardCricketpix)

Anger

Siraj smashing the stumps with his hand after being hit around in that over. Oh, he is angry 😁
— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12)

The reason

the reason we lost the eliminator last year apart from the dropped catches was we didn't have any quality new ball bowler alongside siraj and had to use the best mo pacer in prasidh in an unfavourable phase disturbing the entire distribution of overs
— manan (@_goatkeeper)

On fire